Intermediate carrier to be used in transfer of printed pictures



Sept. 1967 0. R. F. AIF STROM 3,344,012

INTERMEDIATE CARRIER TO BE USED IN TRANSFER OF PRINTED PICTURES Filed Aug. 1, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 PAPER BACKING WEAK ADHESIVE RINT GLUE LAYER FINAL SUPPORT PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE CLEAR LACQUER DISSOLVABLE ADHESIVE CARRIER PROTECTIVE COVER PRINT BACKING DISSOLVABLE ADHESIVE PRINT CLEAR LACQUER CARRIER I4 PRINT u :5 CLEAR LACQUER Q j/ CARRIER 8 INVENTOR OSCAR RF. Af STROM ATTORNEYS p ,1967 o. R. F. AF STROM 3,344,012

INTERMEDIATE CARRIER TO BE USED IN TRANSFER OF PRINTED PICTURES Filed Aug. 1, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 j- FINAL SUPPORT I3b NEW ADHESIVE I4 PRINT CLEAR LACQUER ADHESIVE CLEAR CARRIER ADHESIVE PRINT PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE CLEAR LACQUER ADHESIVE TRANSPARENT CARRIER ADHESIVE 2| FINAL SUPPORT (TRANSPARENT) F /G. 55 I I FINAL SUPPORT MM ADHESIVE II P \ADHESIVE CLEAR LACQUER I7 ADHESIVE l6 TRANSPARENT CARRIER FIG. 5A

INVENTOR OSCAR -R. F. Af STROM BY ozae 4 /w ATTORNEY 8 PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE United States Patent INTERMEDIATE CARRIER TO BE USED IN TRANSFER OF PRINTED PICTURES Oscar Richard Fredrik At Striim, Icao Un Tam, PMB 12608, Lagos, Nigeria Filed Aug. 1, 1963, Ser. No. 299,380

Claims priority, application Sweden, Aug. 8, 1962,

8 Claims. (Cl. 161-99) It is known to transfer a picture provided by a printing method on an initial support, for instance coated art paper, to another support, for instance textiles, wood, stone or the like. Thereby the picture together with the initial support is glued with the printed side turned inwardly on the new support by means of a glue which will give a stronger bond than the bond between the printing dye layer forming the picture, on the one hand, and the initial support, on the other hand, said last mentioned bond thereafter being dissolved. The dissolving of the bond between the printing dye layer forming the picture, on the one hand, and the initial support, on the other hand, thereby takes place by removal of the initial support under chemical or physical or mechanical working, possibly in combination with washing with water with or without any addition of means, promoting the washing procedure, such as caustic sodium or the like.

A picture, transferred this way, however, will appear on the new basis as an image picture of the original one. In many cases this is rather inconvenient. One Way of avoiding that the picture appears as an image picture of the original one, is to print the picture already in the original as an image picture of the one which should be produced, so that after it has been transferred, it will again be turned in the correct direction. This, however, provides for what one knew already, when the printing was made, that the picture should be transferred the above mentioned way. For instance, it could be mentioned that within the field of education illustration material is used in a still increasing scale, and usually this illustration material is collected from journals or books, in order thereafter to be reproduced in some kind of a light reproduction apparatus, such as sciopticon, ballopticon or the like. For the teacher it is of the greatest importance, that he should be capable of quickly and easily transferring the print from a journal or a book either on transparent plate for reproduction by means of sciopticon or on'a fixed, heat resistant disc for reproduction by means of ballopticon. It is not possible here to give account for all of the different cases, when a picture transfer may be desired or needed, because these cases are too many and they are -mutually too different. The mentioned example therefore may be sufficient.

In all of these cases the picture is originally printed in the correct way, and it should also be reproduced in the correct way. In this case, it is obviously necessary to cause a double transferring, so that the picture is transferred from the original print on an intermediate support, and again transferred from this intermediate support on the final support which may be the above mentioned transparent plate of glass of the like, or the heat resistant plate. Of course, this material may also be of any other kind.

The present invention refers to such an inter-mediate support for picture transfer, which has the further advantage, that it will give a very good picture, provided that the original print was good, even if the final surface, on which the picture is transferred, is very uneven or rough. Thus, it has proved possible to transfer pictures in an excellent way on a lot of different textile materials on wood, even on a surface of an unplaned wood, on the rough bursting surface of granite, on the grain side of leather and skin and the like.

Patented Sept. 26, 1967 When a picture should be transferred by means of the intermediate support according to the present invention, this picture of course, has to be in itself of a very high quality, because the quality is not created by the invention, it is only maintained by the means of the present invention. The initial picture carrier therefore may advantageously be coated art paper. By the transfer of the picture, however, its quality should not be damaged, in spite of the new picture carrier being formed of all kinds of more or less rough supports.

In order of explaining the general principle of the invention it may be assumed that one glues two pieces of a deliberate material together. Before gluing them together, however, one has provided a contact surface on the one piece with a lacquer layer, which sticks very well to the support concerned, whereas the other piece has been provided with a lacquer layer of another kind, or under other circumstances with the consequence that it sticks rather weakly to its support. As soon as the gluing joint has been created, consequently three joints exist, viz. the strong joint between the first mentioned piece and its lacquer layer, the glue joint between the two lacquer layers, and the weak joint between the second lacquer layer and the piece attached thereto.

If the two pieces are now subjected to a separation force, the bursting must obviously take place in the weakest place, and if the glue joint is sufficiently strong, as compared with the bond of the two lacquer layers at their working pieces, covered by them, then the weaker joint between a lacquer layer and its working piece will burst. With other words, one has transferred this weaker lacquer layer to the second working piece, where it will, however, occur with its earlier inside outwardly and with its earlier outside inwardly. Assuming now that this weaker lacquer layer was provided with some kind of a print, this will appear in an image picture on the new support. This principle is used both for the transfer of the original picture to the intermediate support and for the transfer of the picture from the intermediate support to the final support.

The invention will be further described below in con nection with the attached drawing. However, it is understood that the invention is not limited to the specific form of execution, thus shown and described in the drawing, but that all kinds of different modifications may occur within the frame of the invention.

FIGURE 1 is an enlarged section showing laminated pieces for explaining the principle of operation of the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of an intermediate carrier ac cording to the present invention.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view of the intermediate carrier shown in FIGURE 2 enlarged to illustrate details more clearly.

FIGURES 4, 4A and 4B illustrate different stages in the application of the intermediate carrier shown in FIG- URES 2 and 3.

FIGURE 5 illustrates a modification of the present invention.

FIGURES 5A and 5B illustrate steps in the operation of the embodiment shown in FIGURE 5.

FIGURE 1 illustrates the basic known steps for print transfer. A print, for example a layer of printing dye 3 attached to coated art paper 2 by adhesive 2a, is to 'be transferred to a final support 1, giving a mirror image picture of the original picture.

The final support 1 is pressed against this printing dye layer 3, however only after it has been provided with a layer 4 of glue, to which the printing dye layer will stick. In this way one has provided a laminate of the four parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 with the intermediate joining surfaces 5, 6 and 7. The surface 5 represents the bond between the glue layer 4 and the new support which may be a surface of very uneven character. This bond is provided to be strong. The surface 6 represents the bond between the same glue layer and the printing dye layer 3, and also this bond is assumed to be strong. The surface 7 represents the bond between the printing dye layer and the surface of the coated art paper, but this bond is rather Weak.

Removing now the coated art paper 2, the printing dye layer will at least in its essential thickness, remain in connection with the new support 1, bound to this support by means of the glue layer 4. However, the transferred picture will now be an image picture of the original. And this is, where the intermediate layer according to the present invention should be used. As a matter of fact, this intermediate support should be used to carry up the image picture of the original in order that it should thereafter, principal-1y according to the same procedure as mentioned above, be further transferred to the final support.

FIG. 2 shows such an intermediate support, seen from above, and FIG. 3 shows the same intermediate support in section. As in FIG. 1, the cross direction scale is enlarged to clarify the relative positions of the different layers in the intermediate support.

A sheet of paper or similar material 8 may for instance be of simplex paper of some known kind, or even of a duplex laminate. It carries up a water soluble layer 9, which may be of the same kind as the one, normally contained in the old decalcorn'ania, viz. a thin film of starch and um arabic which may be water soluble. Over this film 9 there is provided a layer 10 of form stable clear lacquer. This layer has a quite specific importance in this connection. In all known decalcomainza printing, the support paper should be of a kind, which could easily be washed away, and therefore it must be made rather strongly hygroscopic. Thus, the paper was strongly sensitive to the atmospheric state, as a result of'which it would swell and shrink with changes in the moisture in the surrounding atmosphere. To some extent, however, not to a satisfactory extent, one could do away with this difiiculty by carefully storing the decalcomania in conditioned atmosphere, but this method could not be used in all cases, and it was expensive and troublesome, and in spite of this the result was not always good, but changes in scale could occur,

which made the said decalcomania method unsuitable for I such a picture transfer, which should take place in a rather exact scale, for instance transferring of instrument scales or the like. This difficlulty, however, is done away with by the addition of the clear lacquer layer 10 according to the present invention.

Such a laquer could not be used in the earlier known traditional decalcomanias, because it made the addition of the print difficult. It should be remembered that these traditional decalcomanias always had from the beginning been provided with the printing dye layer forming the picture. The disadvantage will no longer exist in the intermediate carrier according to the present invention, because the pitcure will never be bound directly to the clear lacquer, but a layer of glue will always exist between the clear lacquer and the picture. This layer of glue in FIG. 3 is indicated by 11. The film of glue in this case should consist in some transparent, non-water soluble, print sensitive film of glue.

The application of the film of glue may taken place in many different ways dependent upon the character of the carrier material in the intermediate carrier. Assuming that this carrier is made of plastic, this plastic may be prepared by a cover of one or more solution means, penetrating the plastic, thereby forming a sticky layer which serves as the glue layer according to the present invention. In this case, after the print has applied to the dissolved plastic surface in intimate contact with it, and this surface has been dried to the required extent, so that the joint between the plastic and the printing dye layer becomes strong, the printing dye layer may be further transferred to the final support.

In other cases the laquer layer may be of such a kind,

4 that, when it is soft, it will stick with a duly adapted adhesion power, but it is also possible to cause the lacquer to dry fully, and thereafter to add a separate glue.

The glue may also be fed by means of a spraying method, or it may be applied in a rotational printing press or by means of some other known method. Care should be taken, that the glue, used in this case, is not of such a kind, that it changes the chemical or mechanical composition of the printing dye layer or of the intermediate carrier.

An intermediate support of the kind described in connection with FIGS. 2 and 3 can easily be protected against moisture or variations in moisture, whereby it is possible to store it without destruction. The glue layer 11 is not water soluble, and consequently also non-hygroscopic, and therefore no moisture can penetrate into the lamination or get out from said lamination through the film of glue 11. If moisture should enter into or out of the lamination it must therefore obviously take place from the lower side, which consists in usual decalcomania paper which is strongly hygroscopic or from the edges. In such a case one can however easily protect the lower side and the edges by covering them with a film of some moisture proof plastic, 12, which, however, takes no active part in the transfer method. This film of plastic 12, as seen from FIG. 3, is turned around the edges of the lamination 8, 9, 1t 11, and turned over the glue layer 11 iwth a small edge, which is welded in the corners. In this way a compact, moisture proof and storing proof package is made.

FIGURES 4, 4A and 4B illustrate the application of the intermediate carriage shown in FIGURES 2 and 3. First the pitcure 14 which is held to backing material 13 by an adhesive 13a is pressed onto the glue layer 11. If this layer 11 is a pure pressure sensitive glue layer then it is sufficient to provide an intimate contact under pressure between the printing dye layer 14 and the glue layer 11, for instance by putting the initial picture carrier together with the intermediate picture carrier between a couple of resilient rollers or between a rigid surface and a resilient roller. For amateur purposes, of course, this pressure may also be provided with pressing and sliding by means of the fingers, so that air bubbles possibly occurring are forced out from the contact surface. If thereby the free size inside of the plastic frame 15, FIG. 3, should accidently be adapted to the size of the pitcure to be transferred, this frame must not necessarily be removed. If, on

the other side, such adaption should not exist, it is easy with the usual couple of scissors to cut away the frame from the intermediate carrier or to cut this intermediate carrier down to a suitable size.

As shown in FIGURE 4A, after the picture has in this way been transferred from the original print to the intermediate carrier, the paper support 13 and adhesive 13a of the original print is removed, for instance by washing with water, and the protective cover 12 is also removed and the intermediate carrier now carries the printed picture by itself in the form of an image picture, is now ready to be transferred to a fin al support. As shown in FIGURE 4B, the intermediate carrier with the image of print 14 exposed is then pressed against the surface of the final support 25 after a new layer of adhesive, 13b has been placed between 14 and 25. This may be the usual pressure sensitive glue, such as some kind of a plastic glue, but it may also be of any other kind, for instance a water glue, a heat sensitive glue or the like. After the printing dye layer 14 has thus been transferred to the new support 25, and has bound to this support by means of this last mentioned glue layer 13b, the paper 8 an adhesive 9 is washed away, and the picture has thus been transferred into its final state.

Certain kinds of coated art paper or other more precious kinds of paper are difiicult to wash away exclusively with water. However, a lot of dilferent washing means are known, which act as solvents on such a paper without damaging the printing dyes. If needed, one has therefore to add some washing means of the above kind to the washing fluid. As such Washing means, for instance, may be mentioned a weak solution of caustic sodium. Such an addition to the washing fluid may be made both at the removal of the initial carrier of the print, and at the removal of the paper carrier, contained in the intermediate carrier.

The intermediate carrier according to this form of execution of the invention, of course, may be subjected to variations and modifications, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For instance it is suitable before the transfer of the clear lacquer layer and the glue layer 11 to cause a composition of said clear lacquer and the glue, so that these could be added in the form of one single layer. It is also possible to replace the usually used water soluble glue in the layer 9 by means of a glue, which is neither water soluble nor hygroscopic, but which is dissolvable in some other fluid, which does not influence the printing dyes. If this glue is also form stabilizing to a sufficient degree, one can without hesitation leave the protection plastic covering 12 out.

FIGURES 5, 5A and 5B illustrate another form of the invention wherein the support paper 8 in the intermediate carrier has been replaced by a plastic film 16, which could be transparent. Depending on the intended mode of operation this plastic film 16 may be provided With the pressure sensitive glue either on only one side as at 17, or on both sides as at 17 and 18.

If the transparent plastic film 16 to be used instead of the layer of paper 8, is provided with a pressure sensitive glue only on its upper side as seen at 17 in FIGURE 5, then, as shown in FIGURE 5A one would proceed exactly according to the above, wherein the picture should be transferred to the intermediate carrier to appear there as an image picture of the original, and thereafter turned again in the right direction to the new support, insert 25 with the aid of new glue 1311, but it will not be necessary to wash away any paper 8, because this has been replaced by a transparent film of plastic 16 which serves as an additional protection for the picture surface of picture 14.

If the transparent plastic film is provided with a pressure sensitive glue on both sides as shown at 17 and 18 in FIGURE 5, it is also very suitable to transfer the plastic film with the picture applied thereon to a transparent final support 21, by adhesion between said support 21 and the plastic film 16 by means of the lower glue layer 18 as shown in FIGURE 53. This may be used, for instance for production of sciopticon plates or other transparent picture carriers.

The invention, of course, is not limited to the specific form of execution which has been shown in the drawing and further described above, but all kinds of modifications may occur within the frame of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. An intermediate carrier for use in transferring a picture to a stationary support surface comprising the following lamination's, a bottom carrier layer, a non-watersoluble, wear resistant, stable clear lacquer layer, a soluble adhesive layer soluble in a selected solvent between and connecting together said carrier layer and said clear lacquer layer, and a transparent non-soluble adhesive layer non-soluble in said selected solvent on the side of said clear lacquer layer opposite from said adhesive layer.

2. An intermediate carrier according to claim 1, in which the non-soluble adhesive layer is formed by a pressure sensitive glue.

3. An intermediate carrier according to claim 1, including a moisture tight cover, covering at least the lower side and the edges of the haminations forming the intermediate carriers.

4. An intermediate carrier according to claim 3, in which the moisture tight covering is plastic.

5. An intermediate carrier according to claim 3, in which the moisture tight covering is bent over, so that it will also cover a small edge on the top side of the laminations forming the intermediate carrier, where said covering is joined together at thecorners by plastic welding.

6. An intermediate carrier according to claim 1, in which the non-soluble adhesive and the clear lacquer :are formed together into a single layer.

7. An intermediate carrier according to claim 1, in which the bottom support carrier is formed by a thin film of a transparent material.

8. An intermediate carrier according to claim 7, in which the transparent material is provided with a second adhesive layer on the side thereof opposite from the said soluble adhesive layer.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 470,899 3/1892 Robinson 156235 1,883,854 10/1932 Michael 15624O 2,168,989 8/1939 Humphner 156-240 2,742,385 4/1956 Bovenkerk 16l43 X 2,774,472 12/ 1956 Bada-lich 20662 2,820,721 l/1958 Hitchcock et al. 117-72 EARL M. BERGERT, Primary Examiner.

M. L. KATZ, Assistant Examiner. 

1. AN INTERMEDIATE CARRIER FR USE IN TRANSFERRING A PICTURE TO A STATIONARY SUPPORT SURFACE COPRISING THE FOLLOWING LAMINATIONS, A BOTTOM CARRIER LAYER, NON-WATERSOLUBLE, WEAR RESISTANT, STABLE CLEAR LACQUER LAYER, A SOLUBLE ADHESIVE LAYER SOLUBLE IN A SELECTED SOLVENT BETWEEN AND CONNECTING TOGETHER SAID CARRIER LAYER AND SAID CLEAR LACQUER LAYER, AND A TRANSPARENT NON-SOLUBLE ADHESIVE LAYER NON-SOLUBLE IN SAID SELECTED SOLVENT ON THE SIDE OF SAID CLEAR LACQUER LAYER OPPOSITE FROM SAID ADHESIVE LAYER.
 3. AN INTERMEDIATE CARRIER ACCORDING TO CLAIM 1, INCLUDING A MOISTURE TIGHT COVER, COVERING AT LEAST THE LOWER SIDE AND THE EDGES OF THE LAMINATIONS FORMING THE INTERMEDIATE CARRIERS.
 5. AN INTERMEDIATE CARRIER ACCORDING TO CLAIM 3, IN WHICH THE MOISTURE TIGHT COVERING IS BENT OVER, SO THAT IT WILL ALSO COVER A SMALL EDGE ON THE TOP SIDE OF THE LAMINATIONS FORMING THE INTERMEDIATE CARRIER, WHERE SAID COVERING IS JOINED TOGETHER AT THE CORNERS BY PLASTIC WELDING. 